Into The Half Light and Shadow Go I

The exhibition is titled, INTO THE HALF LIGHT AND SHADOW GO I, is curated by Jesal Thacker and Soumik Nandy Majumdar. There is also a book launch of ‘Shadow Lines: Tracing the Journey’, which is a magnum opus publication comprising the lifelong works by the celebrated artist Jogen Chowdhury on November 17^th at Art Mumbai . (Details of the book and book cover are part of the Press Pack).

The title, ‘INTO THE HALF LIGHT AND SHADOW GO I’, is the opening line from the Bodh (Sensation) which functions as a gateway to the curatorial framework of this show. It anchors the art of Jogen Chowdhury to the tradition of the informed, and self-reflexive artistic responses to human condition. The curatorial idea attempts at tracing how the artist has been willing to encounter the signs of human angst from his early works, including the academic exercises which anticipate his human concerns vis-à-vis social reality. The renewed emphasis on these aspects offers a wider art historical context positing Jogen Chowdhury as one of the flag-bearers of mid-twentieth century Indian modernism which preferred enigmatic and self-reflexive images to explicit and agenda-based articulations.